A Piece of Magic, 2019

A Piece of Magic is a 30x40x1.5 inches original oil painting of two nuthatch birds in the corner of a wildflower field at dawn. It is art nouveau, semi-abstract, and part traditional in style and was inspired by me spotting one of these little birds on a tree trunk for the first time recently. They are small and elusive and very endearing little birds but quite hard to see as they are so small. The background of this painting is pink, lilac, light blue, golden yellow and white and is my attempt to hint at the sun through a tangle of a meadow of flowers in May at dawn. I observe what I see around me as I walk through the landscape but do not try to capture botanical accuracy. Instead, I paint the impression formed on my memory from something I have seen and want to share. For this reason, the birds are painted fairly realistically but their little corner of a field is only hinted at as it easier for me to show the feeling of it this way. Paintings are little worlds presented by artists to show what they find beautiful or ugly about the world. I prefer to concentrate on the beauty of this world rather than the ugly and I love how nature is permanently performing beautiful little scenarios like this, available to anyone who makes the effort to go and look. This painting is on deep edge canvas, white edges, no frame needed, ready to hang.